


Crossing The Line

by f-ing-ruthless-baz (my_mad_fatuation)



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkward Boners, Enemies to Lovers, First Kiss, M/M, Sharing a Bed, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 07:55:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17804075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_mad_fatuation/pseuds/f-ing-ruthless-baz
Summary: Baz was slightly alarmed when he returned to his room in the evening and discovered that there was only one bed. Simon’s bed.





	Crossing The Line

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to do a super silly _There Was Only One Bed_ fic (which was the original working title for it, too, lol), and it is super contrived and ridiculous, but I like it and I hope you enjoy it too!

Baz was slightly alarmed when he returned to his room in the evening and discovered that there was only one bed. Simon’s bed.

“What did you do, Snow?” Baz asked his roommate, who was seated on his own bed and casually reading, like he had no awareness of the world around him until Baz spoke.

Simon looked up and frowned at Baz. “I didn’t do anything,” he said defensively.

“Then why’s my bed missing?” Baz said, pointing to the empty space against the wall where his bed used to be.

Simon glanced at the spot and then at Baz again. “I have no idea,” he said. “It was like that when I got here.”

“Right,” Baz replied sarcastically. “You had nothing to do with it, I’m sure.”

“I swear!”

Baz folded his arms over his chest. “So you didn’t just do that thing where you get really stressed and make something happen just by thinking about it?”

“Why would I _think_ your bed away, Baz?”

“To get rid of me, obviously.”

“Is that all it would take?”

“Of course not.”

“That’s what I thought,” Simon said, like his point had just been proven. “Like I said, it wasn’t me.”

“So my bed just disappeared on its own, is that it?” Baz said impatiently.

Simon returned his attention to his book. “Maybe it just wanted to get away from you,” he muttered. “I don’t blame it.”

Baz stood there seething for a minute while his roommate continued reading, and then turned around and left. He needed to hunt if he was going to have the mental energy to deal with this nightmare of a situation clearly.

By the time he got back, though, the room was dark and Simon was already asleep in bed. That was unacceptable.

Once Baz was in his pyjamas for the night, he went over and rattled Simon awake. “Snow,” he said loudly. “Get up.”

Simon just groaned and rolled away.

“Get up, Snow.”

“Whyyyy?” Simon whined, still half-asleep.

“I’m sleeping here,” Baz said. “You can take the floor.”

“But this is _my_ bed.”

“You should have thought of that before you got rid of mine, then.”

Simon rolled back to face Baz, even though his eyes were barely open—and it was too dark for him to see, anyway. “I told you, it wasn’t me.”

“Well, I’m not sleeping on the floor, Snow,” Baz said sternly.

“Can’t you just spell yourself a new bed?”

“I don’t know any spells for that. Get up.”

“I’m not sleeping on the floor, Baz, so…” Simon said, and then scooted himself towards the wall.

Baz waited a bit for Simon to continue his sentence, but it didn’t seem to be forthcoming. “So _what_ , Snow?”

“So get in and shut up,” Simon grumbled, rolling to face away again.

“I’m not getting in bed with you, Snow!” Baz replied, slightly more agitated than he ought to be.

“Suit yourself.”

Baz stood there for another minute, weighing his options, but he was so tired that he eventually—and begrudgingly—climbed in beside his roommate, who just so happened to be his arch nemesis.

And the love of his life.

“For the record, Snow,” Baz said once he’d pulled his side of the blankets all the way up to his neck, while Simon’s were down by his waist, “this doesn’t make us friends. In fact, imagine a line down the centre of the bed. We each stay to our own side, and any crossing of this line will be seen as an act of war and punishable by death.”

“Roommates’ Anathema,” Simon mumbled, as he was already falling back asleep.

“I’ll wait until we’re out of the room to kill you, obviously.”

“What if you cross it, though?”

“I assure you, I won’t,” Baz said. Though he just wished he could assure himself of that.

***

“Baz?”

“Mm?”

“Baz, wake up.”

Baz didn’t want to wake up, though. He felt so warm and cosy, there was no way he would want to leave all that for the cold and cruel outside world. He hated the disembodied voice trying to wake him.

“I think you crossed the line, Baz.” The voice more clearly belonged to Simon, now.

“What?” Baz tried to respond, but it came out muffled. As he slowly began to wake up, he realized why. His face was squished against Simon’s shoulder blade while he was holding onto Simon around his waist.

Once he realized where he was, he pushed himself away as quickly as he could and stared up at the ceiling, a feeling of impending doom flooding him.

Simon rolled to face Baz now, and laughed. “I guess this means I have to kill you.”

 _Yes, yes it does_ , Baz thought.

“Breakfast first, though,” Simon added, sitting up and nudging Baz with his foot. “Move. You’re in my way.”

Instead of simply moving aside for Simon to get past him, Baz bolted out of the bed—and out of the room, actually, in his pyjamas and bare feet. He didn’t stop until he was a couple floors down and hid in one of the common bathrooms to wait so he could be certain that Simon had left for breakfast already.

Baz went back up to the room to change afterwards, but opted to skip breakfast in the dining hall altogether in order to avoid Simon as much as possible. It was difficult during classes, though, especially since Simon usually had his eye on Baz to make sure he wasn’t plotting. Baz just continued to sit ahead of him and not look back at all. He could almost pretend Simon wasn’t even there. Almost.

He met up with some of his friends during lunch, and they were already talking about beds being missing from their rooms.

“Wait, this is happening all over Watford?” Baz asked. “All the rooms only have one bed now?”

“As far as I can tell,” said Niall.

“So how did you… deal with it?” Baz added nervously.

“Deal with what?”

“Only having one bed.”

“I slept in it,” Niall replied, like that should have been obvious.

“With your roommate?”

“What? No, Baz, it was _my_ bed,” he said. “He slept on the floor.”

“Right. Of course, sorry, I—Right.” Baz nodded as he looked off into the distance just to avoid the inquisitive look on Niall’s face.

“Why, what did you—”

“I think I might go for a walk,” Baz cut in, standing abruptly. “I’ll see you guys later.”

***

Baz continued trying his best to avoid Simon for the rest of the day, even staying in the catacombs later than he usually would, just to minimize the amount of time he’d have to spend in the room. He actually contemplated falling asleep on the stone floor, right there, but decided that would make for a particularly strange walk of shame the next morning that he did not want to deal with.

As usual, the room was dark when Baz returned, and Simon was fast asleep. And there was still only one bed. _Perfect_.

Baz walked over to the bed and eyed the lump of blankets piled on top of Simon’s middle—he couldn’t seem to use a blanket properly to save his life—and wondered if it would be possible to steal at least one of the layers to use in order to sleep on the floor.

Soon Baz realized, however, that Simon was all the way to one side of the bed, towards the wall like last night. As if he’d fallen asleep there on purpose. To make room.

The ice around Baz’s heart started to melt a little, but he tried not to get carried away with fantasies about why Simon would do such a thing. As much as Baz would like to think it was because Simon secretly loved him back, he knew it probably had much more to do with Simon’s hero complex. The valiant white knight saving the damsel in distress.

_Wait, does that make me the damsel?_

Baz pushed the thought aside and climbed into the bed next to Simon, wearily. He considered casting **Don’t move a muscle** to keep himself still all night, so he wouldn’t accidentally wind up wrapped around Simon again, but he wasn’t sure how he would get himself back out of it in the morning. He fell asleep before he could work out the logistics.

***

Baz was the first to wake up the next morning, and while he was relieved to find that he had not moved from his side of the bed, there was still much less distance between him and Simon than he would have liked. In fact, there was no distance between them.

Simon was curled up against Baz’s side, with his head on Baz’s shoulder, his arm resting on Baz’s chest, and his leg over Baz’s middle. Baz, in turn, had his arm around Simon’s back, even though he had no recollection of how they ended up like this.

He wasn’t really sure how to proceed. He could try to wake Simon abruptly and humiliate him for this, but he was kind of enjoying it for the time being. This was the closest Baz was ever going to get with Simon, and he didn’t want it to end. Not until Simon began to stir.

It started small. Simon curled his fingers around some of the material of Baz’s shirt, tugging at it a little, and he let out a soft moaning sound. Baz couldn’t tell if Simon was having a nightmare or… another kind of dream. When Simon’s leg moved downward, however, Baz knew that he couldn’t stick around to find out, or else the situation would get a hundred times more awkward.

He pushed Simon off of him and sat up at the edge of the bed to compose himself for a moment, but felt Simon moving around on the bed behind him, like he was also sitting up.

“What’s goin’ on?” Simon asked groggily.

Baz looked back over his shoulder and saw Simon, who was leaning on one arm and rubbing his eye with his palm, glance down at his own crotch for a second.

 _Nope!_ Baz thought to himself as he looked away quickly. This was definitely more awkward.

Simon cleared his throat nervously. “Er, sorry about—”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Baz cut in as he stood abruptly and marched off to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

***

Baz was extra vigilant about avoiding Simon as much as possible that day, but it was slightly easier since Simon seemed to be trying to avoid him as well.

By lunchtime, news had spread around Watford about how half the beds went missing all at once. Apparently, one of the girls in fifth year had her room all to herself for the week while her roommate was on a family holiday, and so the girl decided she was going to try and spell the beds together to make a single large one for her to sleep in all week. She hadn’t quite mastered control of her magic yet, though, so when she cast **There was only one bed** , it made it so that all the students’ rooms were left with only one bed.

She was facing a moderate punishment for damage to school property, apparently, and the administration and faculty were working on sorting out how to get all the missing beds back. Word was that they would be restoring them gradually over the next few days, since it was near impossible to get them all back at once, and in the right spots. (It’s much easier to throw something away from a spot than to throw it precisely into a certain spot, so to speak.)

Much to Baz’s dismay, his bed was not one of the ones to get put back that day, so he had to spend another night sharing with Simon, though he gave more serious consideration to the catacombs idea this time. At least that way he would be less likely to wake up with an embarrassing _situation_ in his pants. (Hopefully.)

But he returned to the room eventually, since he required the warmth of blankets around him in order to drift off. As he expected, Simon was all the way to one side of the bed when Baz got back, but this time Simon was facing inward, towards the centre line that neither of them were supposed to cross—even though both of them had already.

It wasn’t until Baz was in the bed, though, and had just gotten himself settled under the covers, that he noticed Simon’s eyes were open. “Crowley, Snow,” Baz said once his heart started back up again. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I was waiting for you to show up,” Simon replied, though he sounded very tired.

“You know that’s a really creepy thing to say, right?”

“You’re the one who sneaks around late at night, all secretively and stuff.”

Baz huffed impatiently. “Why were you waiting for me, Snow?”

“I—I just…” Simon began. “I don’t think we can avoid each other forever, so we might as well talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Baz said as he stared up at the ceiling, trying to ignore Simon.

“Are you going to kill me, Baz?” Simon asked, practically whispering.

“Some day, probably.”

“I mean for crossing the line.”

“Well, you didn’t kill me for crossing it, so I guess we’re even.”

The room went quiet for a minute and Baz thought that maybe Simon had fallen asleep, but then Simon spoke again. “Baz, can we forget about the line tonight?”

Baz turned his head to glare at Simon, though Simon wouldn’t be able to read his expression in the dark. “ _Why?_ ” he hissed.

“We’re clearly not very good at keeping to our sides, so what’s the point?”

“Are you just saying this so you can cuddle up to me right now, Snow?” Baz asked sarcastically, looking up at the ceiling again.

“Kind of…”

Baz side-eyed him for a second, but it seemed like Simon was being serious. “What?”

“I like how cold you are,” Simon told him. “And feeling your chest rise and fall with your breath helped calm me down after I had a nightmare last night…”

“Wait, you didn’t end up wrapped around me by accident this morning?” Baz asked incredulously.

“Not exactly, I guess,” Simon replied, though he looked like he was trying to hide his face in the pillow.

“But you hate me, Snow.”

“No, _you_ hate _me_ ,” he said. “Or, at least, I thought you did…”

Baz’s nerves were on edge. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You were sleeping, so I suppose you didn’t mean it,” Simon said slowly.

“Didn’t mean what?”

“I’d just gotten out of my nightmare, and I was still shaking a little, but then you started muttering that it would be okay, and you pulled me in next to you and… yeah.”

“I clearly had no idea where I was,” Baz scoffed.

“You called me Simon, though.”

 _All right, kill me now_ , Baz thought.

“It helped a lot, Baz,” Simon continued. “So… thank you for crossing the line for me, I guess.” He waited for a moment, in case Baz had anything else to say, and then rolled away to his other side. “Whatever. Goodnight, then.”

Baz didn’t care for the icy tone that had found its way to Simon’s voice when he said goodnight, though, so after a minute of internal debate, he reluctantly rolled towards Simon and put his arm around him.

“We’ll kill each other tomorrow, got it?” Baz said as he nestled against Simon’s back.

“Got it.”

***

“Baz… Get up.”

Baz let out a whine as he opened his eyes to the harsh light of the morning, although he wasn’t entirely surprised to find himself face to face with Simon, their limbs all entangled together, considering the events of the past sixty hours. He couldn’t get his eyes to stay open for long, though, and since it was the weekend he didn’t bother trying very hard. “Sleeping,” he groaned, and pushed the side of his head into the pillow.

“Baz, you’re on my arm,” Simon whispered groggily, and Baz could feel something under his neck start to move a little.

Baz moved his head a little, too, to relieve some of the pressure from Simon’s arm, but didn’t lift it all the way. Instead he leaned in closer and nestled his face into Simon’s shoulder.

The two of them continued to stir for a bit as they tried to get comfortable enough to settle back into sleep. Baz was _just_ awake enough that every time part of Simon brushed against him, his heart rate went up, but still asleep enough that he didn’t think to run away from it. He just pushed closer, uncertain of exactly where his body ended and Simon’s began, because it was all a bit of a mess.

“Baz,” Simon mumbled, his mouth pressing against Baz’s hair. “Are you…?”

Baz froze for a second when he felt Simon’s leg shift between his, but quickly started to pull away. “Sorry, I—”

“Wait.” Simon’s hand, which had been resting against Baz’s chest, was now clinging to Baz’s t-shirt to keep him from leaving. “I like this.”

Baz lifted his head a little to look at Simon, whose eyes were just barely open and looking back at him. “Simon… What...” he said, trailing off as he slowly examined Simon’s visage. The angle of his eyebrows. The flush of his cheeks. The slight parting of his lips.

 _This might be a dream_ , Baz thought as Simon brought his face even closer in order to kiss him. _This is definitely a dream_.

They shared a long, languid kiss, as both of them were still emerging from the fog of sleep. But the haze soon began to lift, and their motions grew more fervent, feeling each other with their lips, their hands, their bodies, until Baz got too close and it felt like his throat was burning.

He pulled back far enough for him to see that Simon’s cross had slipped out over the neckline of his shirt, but the disruption was enough to make him come to his senses and he scrambled to get out of the bed as fast as possible.

Simon propped himself up on his arm and stared up at Baz in confusion before glancing down at his necklace. “Oh,” he said as he tucked the pendant back inside his t-shirt. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking—”

“Neither of us were thinking, Snow,” Baz cut in, a bit frazzled. “Clearly. I mean, why would you even do that?”

“Do what?”

“Kiss me!”

“I dunno, I was half-asleep,” Simon replied, lowering his head and his voice. “And it felt good…”

“That’s messed up, Snow,” Baz said, pulling on his own hair in frustration.

“Hey, you were definitely kissing me back, so I’m not the only one who’s messed up, here—”

“Well, I’m _gay_ , all right?”

“You are?”

“Yes. So it’s not nearly as messed up for me to kiss a bloke as it is for you.”

“Who says I’m not gay?”

Baz frowned at Simon. “Are you?”

Simon shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve never thought about it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Baz muttered to himself, shaking his head. “I’m going to get ready,” he added, louder. “And let’s never speak of this again.”

“Baz, come on—”

Baz was in the bathroom with the door slammed shut before he could hear the rest of Simon’s plea.

 _This isn’t a dream,_ he thought. _It’s a nightmare._

***

Weekends were a bit easier for Baz to avoid Simon, since they didn’t have to sit in a classroom together for large chunks of the day. But he still saw Simon around, across the dining hall or sitting out on the lawn with his friend, Penelope—he hadn’t been spending much time with Agatha since they broke up, Baz noticed.

Baz was finding it difficult to pay attention to anything else all day, however. He zoned in and out of conversations with his friends until he told them he wasn’t feeling well and needed to go back to his room to lie down. His mind was racing, and he had to sort some things out in his head before he could bear to face Simon again, that was certain.

When he got back to the room, however, he was surprised to find two beds, including his own, right where it always used to be. They must have finally gotten around to restoring the beds in Mummers House, he figured. But he felt a slight pang in his chest, knowing that he was never going to be that close with Simon Snow again, if they weren’t forced to share a bed.

Which was a good thing, was it not? Sharing a bed did more trouble than good, even though it resulted in Baz’s first kiss—a kiss with the boy he loved, no less. It would have been bloody fantastic except for the fact that Simon was his sworn enemy, and also (probably) not gay.

Having his own bed back was definitely an improvement for Baz. He knew this. And yet, he couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it would be to curl up and fall asleep next to Simon once more. Maybe even let the lines get a bit fuzzy in the blurriness of dawn again…

Baz stood in the middle of the room, eyeing both beds as he made his decision. He had much better control of his magic than some fifth year student, he was sure, so there was far less of a risk for him to attempt this.

“ **There was only one bed**.” He cast the spell, and all of a sudden there was only one bed left in the room. His bed.

He swore under his breath a little, since it would be obvious that he’d messed with things now that the wrong bed was missing. He even considered moving his bed over to the other wall where Simon’s used to be, but before he had a chance to try, the door swung open and Simon walked in, stopping in his tracks when he saw Baz standing there.

“What’s going on here, then?” Simon asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at Baz as the door closed behind him.

“I was sick of sleeping on your side of the room,” Baz lied as nonchalantly as he could, “so I moved the bed over to my side. Hope you don’t mind. Actually, I don’t care if you do mind.”

“I see…” Simon nodded and set his wand down on his desk before walking over towards the bed. “So I guess they haven’t got the missing beds back in this area yet.”

“Looks that way.”

“Which is odd,” he continued, “because I ran into Rhys and Gareth as I was coming in just now, and they told me theirs was restored today.”

Baz scoffed. “That’s great, Snow, but maybe it’s taking longer to do our room since we’re at the top of the turret.”

“Right…” Simon said, nodding again. “It’s even more odd, though, because when I came back to the room after lunch because I spilled gravy on my shirt, I noticed that both beds were here.”

Baz’s cool exterior was cracking and his stomach started to sink, now that he’d been caught in a rather humiliating lie.

“Guess it was a glitch, huh?” Simon added with a knowing smile.

“Guess so,” Baz muttered, looking away to avoid Simon’s eyes.

“Well, if it hasn’t been sorted out by tonight, it looks like we’ll be sharing again,” Simon went on, and took a step towards Baz to reach for his arm, which made Baz look back at him. “But if we are going to share a bed tonight, I think we need some ground rules.” He drew Baz in closer. “Like, no hands below the waist. Yet.”

Baz stared at him, dumbfounded for a moment. “Excuse me?”

“I want to take this slow and see where it goes,” Simon explained.

“See where what goes?”

“This,” he said as he placed his other hand on Baz’s face and pulled him in for a brief kiss. “I don’t know what it means for now, but it feels… right. Right?”

Baz nodded slightly, still entranced by the movement of Simon’s lips, whether they were on his or not.

“We’ve got plenty of time to figure it out, though.” Simon smiled again. “For all we know, it could take a _while_ for them to sort out our bed situation.”

“That’s true…” Baz replied, his mouth slightly curving up as well.

“Well, I’ve got to go meet Penny for dinner,” Simon said, and then took a couple steps back. “But we’ll discuss this more tonight, yeah?”

“Wait,” Baz said, keeping Simon from leaving just yet. “Don’t you think that this is maybe crossing the line a bit too much?”

“We’re not crossing the line, Baz,” Simon told him matter-of-factly. “We’re erasing it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I'm going to be super obnoxious and mention that I have a tumblr now for my _Carry On_ shenanigans, [@f-ing-ruthless-baz](https://f-ing-ruthless-baz.tumblr.com), so feel free to befriend me over there because I am so lonely.


End file.
